Then, I'll Return
by T.K. Sakura
Summary: 1xOC Chapters eight and nine are the last ones. It's over. Arigato to all who have reviewed.
1. Default Chapter

T. K.: WOO-HOO! New fic!  
  
Neko-Chan: It's sappy.  
  
T. K.: Whose fault is that?  
  
Neko-Chan: *Whistles theme from Escaflowne and twist his long whiskers*  
  
T. K.: Neko-Chan. Do your thing.  
  
Neko-Chan: WE OWN IT ALL!!! (Just Communication starts playing, he pulls a cell-phone out and flips it open) One second... uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... damn, thanks, Doug. (Back to T. K. and the audience) Well, apparently we don't own it. That was your uncle, Doug. *His gray ears lay flat against his head*  
  
T. K.: Uncle Doug the Cop?  
  
Neko-Chan: Uh-huh. Said to recant the libel or he has to arrest us.  
  
T. K.: Damn. We don't own Gundam Wing. I do, however, own Ayame Suisei. Heero's nineteen and Ayame is 18, they are in Tokyo and in college. Neko-Chan, give the translations.  
  
Neko-Chan: Translations: Hai: Yes; Nai, No: Iie: NO!; Chikusko: Damn it!; Mattaku no baka: Damned Fool; Wa koi anata: I love you... The I Love You thing may or may not be correct, so if it isn't, please correct us.  
  
T. K.: (Mutters darkly about being related to cops)  
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Heero Yuy sat in his last class of the day, Biology class, listening to the educational tape the professor had playing yammer on about cyanide and how it kills a person, not that Heero didn't already know. One of the perks of being raised by an assassin. Heero stifled a yawn, the urge to lay his head down and make like the rest of the class and fall asleep was beginning to overwhelm him. He felt someone poke him in the shoulder blade with a pencil. He turned to face Ayame Suisei a 5'4" spitfire with long black hair and liquid gold eyes. Ayame held a sheet of paper out to him; he smirked as he read what her writing said.   
  
'Kami-Sama! What a snore... I have violin practice after school (more exciting than this), if you wish to tag along. (Please...) Then we can go to the park and (ugh, I don't believe I'm about to say this) do our home work, if we have any, or just hang (Please, please?) then supper at The Village Cafe (Please, please, Please??)   
  
PLEASE???  
Ame'  
  
Heero looked at the sleeping form of Nick Zimmerman in the seat next him to make sure he wasn't spying and started jotting, 'Well, since you've asked me so nicely... I'll tell you my answer after class.  
  
Heero'  
  
He turned to return the note, sitting there half-turned around and watched her read; a smirk crossed the girl's features, she looked up and mouthed okay. He watched her put her head down but knew she wouldn't fall asleep.   
  
Heero and Ayame shared a connection that they couldn't put their fingers on, that allowed them a friendship (and oftentimes more) with out problems. She had told him about being a lieutenant in OZ. That her father had been loyal to Treize till the end and had sent her off to OZ as soon as he possibly could; about advancing quickly to the top and how her life had never been normal, her mother was a drunk; her brother, was to say the least, abusive. That was what she was trying to accomplish here, something normal.  
  
She already knew who Heero was and that he was a Gundam pilot. He had told her about the other pilots, Relena, the missions, the test, and that dying hurts badly. He had also told her that he was trying to lead a normal life as well.   
  
Pretty soon the bell rang and slumbering students rose to find that for once there was no homework.   
  
They had made their way out of the lecture hall and were on their way home when Ayame asked, "Well? Are you coming with me or do I endure violin all by my lonesome?"  
  
Heero looked down the down the road as they walk down then at her and said, "Hnnn, well since I have no homework and the war is over... I guess I'll go."  
  
Ayame looked up. "The war's over?" she asked innocently. "I had no IDEA!"  
  
"You are asking for it today..." Heero warned as they continued walked down the street.  
  
"For what?"  
  
"The tickling of a lifetime," Heero said as he grabbed at her and mercilessly tickled her ribs and back. "Say it! Say my name!" Heero continued as they fell to the ground.  
  
"No, never!" She yelled as they rolled over a lawn, the owner sitting on the porch just stared.   
  
"Aww, come on! Never?" Heero asked tickling harder.  
  
"Okay! Heero!"  
  
"Oh, never?" Heero asked teasing Ayame. She stood and straitened herself and walked away. "Oh come on, Ame. You know I was kidding," Heero said as he walked up to her.  
  
Ayame was smiling, until she looked at her watch. "Chikusko! I'm gonna be late for practice!" she yelled as she broke into a dead run, Heero right behind her.  
  
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"Mrs. Rast, I'm sorry I'm late," Ayame began as she entered the door but soon fell silent to the violin that was already playing. Mrs. Rast was a 20-ish blond with intelligent, but far away looking sky blue eyes, and even though pregnant was a thin woman of 5'7".  
  
"Who's that?" Heero asked quietly, closing the front door to the second floor modest apartment.  
  
"I don't know, it might be her," she said, dropping her voice as well. "Well, time to face the music."  
  
"Literally."  
  
"I was getting to that," Ayame said as she walked into the rehearsal/living room where she saw not Mrs. Rast playing but a blond boy; whom judging from the sound Heero was making, was an old acquaintance.  
  
"Who is that? Wait! Is that Quatre Winner, Heero?" She asked, still whispering. Mrs. Rast and Quatre Winner had yet to notice Heero and Ayame. Grabbing Ayame's arm, Heero made a dash for the door.  
  
Outside, Heero looked behind him and noticed a motorcycle, already started, the rider with his face shield down. "Oh Chikusko!" Heero said and kept running. The motorcycle started after them.  
  
"Heero? Who is it?" Ayame asked, barely keeping pace.  
  
Heero was reluctant to say and he looked behind them to avoid the question, the motorcycle was gaining. "This way!" he yelled as they ducked into an alleyway.   
  
"Heero! Who is that?!" she asked, slowing down as a threat of stopping.  
  
"Another Gundam pilot, Wufei I bet, they've been asking me to come back to the Sanc Kingdom," Heero said and she sped up.  
  
Ayame pulled Heero back and into another alley that made up the labyrinth they were in. "Come on, this way," she said, pulling herself up onto a fire escape; Heero followed suit. The motorcycle past them and she jumped down, landing with the grace of a cat. "We'll go back to my place."  
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Back at her uptown apartment. "Well," she said brightly, "at least they don't know where you are." She looked out the window of the fourth floor apartment, and her expression turned serious. "I know OZ was underhanded and filthy at times, and I've also known my share of rebels; as a matter of fact and honor, I was one of both. They weren't like this; I was never like that, even to deserters. Why are these pilots so ambitious?"  
  
Heero sighed, motioned for Ayame to sit on the leather couch beside him and said, "Because they work for Relena Peacecraft." She looked at him as she sat down his expression was solemn.  
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Half an hour later, she knew the whole story about Relena Peacecraft. She had been calling him and writing to try and get him to come back to the Sanc Kingdom as her personal body guard for there had been rumors of an uprising of those left over from White Fang and everyone had become worried. Ayame was to say the least stunned. "Heero..." she said.  
  
"Be angry, you can hate me, if you like," Heero said with his head hanging, ashamed that he had kept it from her all this time they were together.  
  
"I'd rather not," she said putting a hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek.  
  
Heero looked up at her. "You mean you aren't incredibly pissed off at me?"  
  
"Well, not incredibly," Ayame said getting off the couch. "Are you going to run? 'Cause if you are, I'm coming with you."  
  
"Nai, I can't avoid my past forever; I have to confront it... them. Her. See what they want. It could mean war."  
  
"Then, I want to go with you. If it's a war, I want in!"  
  
"What?! Are you crazy? Iie!"  
  
"Please?"  
  
"Iie!"  
  
"Fine," she said, defeated.  
  
"Ayame?"   
  
"Hai, Heero?"  
  
"Don't worry," he said standing up and extending his hand to her, Ayame took it and he pulled her into an embrace. "I'll be back."  
  
"Do you swear?" She asked, nuzzling down into his neck.  
  
"If I have anything to say about it." Ayame looked up, the gleam in his eye said staying in the Sanc Kingdom wasn't an option; she dropped her head back into the crook of his neck. "Promise me you won't go do something stupid like join an army while I'm gone."  
  
"Fine. I at least want to meet them; and see you off," her tone said no was not the answer to give.  
  
"Okay, come on then; let's get this over with," he said heading for the door, Ayame in tow.  
  
Outside, a cold wind blew that chilled their very souls. "It's going to rain," she said off handed. Heero stared straight ahead at what had so soon become his home and was now to be taken away.  
  
"I hate to leave," Heero said earnestly. "I've grown to like this place." Ayame found herself speechless. Heero looked at her, and gave a lopsided grin, which now came easily to his face. "It's not only the place, though."  
  
"Oh, Heero," she said, unable to think of anything else, as he hugged her fiercely.  
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Heero and Ayame walked to the place where they lost Wufei, and then to where her lessons had been. There again was the motorcycle, but instead of Wufei on the cycle was Trowa, the same wind that chilled Heero and her, was now warmer and playing lightly with Trowa's hair.   
  
"Hnnn," Heero growled.  
  
"Hello, Heero," Trowa said without emotion.  
  
"Trowa, are you guys looking for me or did Wufei chase me for skill assessment?" Heero replied closing the gap between them.  
  
Trowa chuckled almost noiselessly, then turned serious and asked, "Who's she?"  
  
"I am Ayame Suisei, I wish we could have met under better circumstances," she said extending her right hand and taking his.  
  
"Pleasure to meet you, Suisei was it?" he asked. Shaking her hand briskly. "Nice grip," he said, lips pursing in what was supposed to be a smile.  
  
"Everyone's inside?" Heero asked, although it seemed was more of a statement.  
  
"Hai," Trowa said getting off the motorcycle and walked to the door, Heero and Ayame close on his heels. Trowa opened the door and let them past, catching Heero's eye to ask what Ayame thought she was doing. Heero just shook his head and mouthed later. Ayame just sighed, noticing the exchange and walked on to Mrs. Rast's apartment.  
  
Heero looked at her, Ayame had slipped into soldier mode; head high, shoulders back, stomach in, arms at her sides, steps perfectly timed, he could almost hear her brain say, 'To the left, to the left. To the left, right! Left!' He laughed/sighed and took on his war visage.  
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Inside the apartment, Quatre had taken up his violin and was playing a sad piece that she knew well. Introductions had gone around and Ayame was about to leave when the door opened. In stepped Relena Peacecraft and Lucrezia Noin.   
  
"Heero!" Relena cried as she rushed to hug him. Heero was at a loss as he hugged Relena and stared at Ayame. Ayame smiled, turned around and walked out of the door. "Who was that?" Relena asked.  
  
"That was Ayame," Trowa answered. "Heero's friend."  
  
"Heero, where are you going?" Relena continued her question.  
  
"To make sure I don't lose that friend," he said over his shoulder, as he took off down the stairs after her.  
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Ayame hadn't wasted anytime getting away from the apartment, she just took off running. The tears started to spill from her eyes and she had to stop running. She didn't want to lose Heero to those people, but she knew that he wouldn't come back; when you are bodyguard for people like that they have a way of getting you to stay. It would be too obvious. She was so busy crying that she never heard the footsteps. "Stop crying," Heero ordered. His voice jarred her back to reality, but Ayame kept crying. "Please? Stop crying," he said again, this time softer. He sat down on the curb next to Ayame and placed his arms around her. Her tears lessened, she quieted. Ayame buried her head into his chest. "There, much better."  
  
"Heero, if you go, you won't come back," She said, voice muffled.  
  
"What makes you say that?" he asked, lifting her head up with his index under her chin.  
  
Ayame breathed deeply, she could smell his after-shave. "Because, this will escalate and suck you in."  
  
"But, the war is over! I just want a----," Heero was saying when she cut him off.  
  
"Normal life. Hai, I know. But in truth, how normal can it be?"  
  
"I don't know. Look," he said pulling himself up and Ayame with him, "you're home. If you think that is how it's going to be, go inside, and forget you ever knew me."  
  
"Iie!" she was completely outraged to the point of tears again, and couldn't believe what he was saying. "You have been here when I needed you most," she said, her small hands feebly pounding his well-muscled chest in a pathetic attempt to inflict some sort of physical pain upon him as he was to her soul. "Heero Yuy, mattaku no baka... you are not some stray cat that comes and goes as it pleases!" Then Ayame looked at her hand splayed on his chest and added, "And I broke a nail! You, you," she found myself at a loss for words and had to repeat herself, "You baka!"  
  
Heero lifted an eyebrow at the analogy and the last statement she made, and then asked, "So do you want me to become a house cat, Ame?"  
  
It was now her turn to arch an eyebrow. "That's kinda it." She knew it was impossible to get him to change his mind about going, so Ayame changed course of action; wiggling out of his embrace, she asked, "Will you at least give me the honor of one last walk up stairs, until you return?"  
  
Heero looked at her and added, "If I return..."  
  
"Well?" she prompted as she had earlier in the day. That conversation seemed like years ago.  
  
Heero opened the door for her as he had so many times before. Ayame walked past him. They arrived at her door and she withdrew her key; Ayame stopped, her key poised to enter the lock when she couldn't find the power to push it on in. When that door opened he was gone; when; if ever, would he be back? She felt his impatience grow quickly, then he relaxed and took her hand in his. He pushed the key in and she felt the lock click. Ayame turned back to Heero and rested her head on his chest, his heart strong and regular; unlike hers, which was faint, and about to break. Heero lifted her head up and kissed her lips. Not so much of a kiss as a mere touch, she yearned for more but he had to leave. "Heero?" Ayame's voice sounded strangled and awkward to her own ears.  
  
"Hai?"  
  
She felt as though she might not even be able to articulate the right words. "Please for the love of the Heavens above us... Come home! There is so much here waiting for you." Heero looked her in the eyes and opened the door. She again felt tears and wanted to run away to her room and shut herself away from the cruel world without a second thought. "Wa koi anata, I've finally found a life here... I hope you've found one as well."  
  
Heero started walking. "I have, so, I'll return," he said. Outside the storm broke with the fury of hell. 


	2. Something's Gone Wrong

T. K.: PART TWO!!! My first chaptered fic!  
  
Neko-Chan: *laughs* Kami, you're excitable. Check part one for disclaimer. There's one translation... Kyoju: Professor  
  
T. K.: I don't know what age OZ normally started enlisting it soldiers, but Ayame was young when she joined. I mean REALLY young. By the way there is 2x5 and 6x9 in this. It's not really talked about or expanded upon but it is mentioned.  
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The floor was cold, the door was metal, and there were no windows in the concrete walls. In a corner, a man no older than twenty sat, his knees drawn to his chest and rocking slightly. "Baka, baka, baka. How in the world did you end up here?" Heero Yuy was talking to himself. With a harsh laugh he answered himself. "I ended up here because I was overconfident and got myself shot and captured." It was true; the mission itself wasn't any harder than most of the ones he'd accomplished as a teen. The objective was simple... get in, get the information off the computer, blow everything up when he was done. But instead, he got in, got shot in the leg, and then taken a blow to the head when he was thrown in this cell. Outside the wind howl across Siberia's snow covered land. He sighed and wondered what Ayame Suisei would do if she saw him like this. Heero growled. "She'd leave me."   
  
'Would she? Because if I recall...' a little voice in his head teased.   
  
"It wasn't Ame who left now was it?" he asked himself and finishing for the little voice.   
  
The answer was obvious. He'd left her in front of her apartment with the words, "I'll return."   
  
Heero scoffed, "Who's more foolish, her for believing me... or me for believing me?"   
  
He'd had every intention of returning, but the rumors were true. White Fang had returned and Relena, as suspected, had almost been assassinated. Duo had taken the bullet for her. Wufei, upset that his friend and lover had been shot, resigned from the assignment to take up watch at Duo's bedside. That had left Lucrezia Noin, Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton, and Heero to watch over Relena. Then things became more complicated. After Heero had been there two weeks, Zechs Merquise, who had been working for the Preventers in trying to put out this fire, had been called to the colonies. Plus, he had taken Lucrezia Merquise/Noin (his wife of two and a half years as Heero had been told later) with him. Trowa was in fact only a temp on this job. He had a steady job at the circus and Katherine worried terribly; he was leaving soon. As for Quatre, he had put the satellite in the hands of his sisters while he was away and was leaving soon as well.  
  
Heero shoved himself off the floor and started pacing. His thoughts were on his friends. They could leave this assignment at any point in time. "I quit, I FUCKING QUIT!!!" he screamed. "Fuck being the 'Perfect Soldier', I want to be the 'Perfect Boyfriend'." Heero looked at his shaking hands as they clenched into fist, his nails cutting into his palms. His eyes started to blur. His leg was throbbing in pain but a second pain that had been in his heart for months was even more intense --- he missed Ayame terribly.  
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"I'll return," he had said; that was five months ago. Ayame sat on the same leather couch where he had told her about Relena Peacecraft, the thought of that...  
  
"That WOMAN!" Ayame fairly hissed. The thought of Relena made Ayame start crying all over again. Heero hadn't called or written since he'd left with her. Ayame wondered if he'd actually return to her or if it had been a lie to make her shut up. Enough was enough. She had waited five months. "Classes be damned, I'm going to do something."   
  
Ayame was pacing the floor thinking when there was a rap on the door. She sighed and looked in the mirror by the doorway. She looked like Hell. Her hair hadn't seen a brush since her shower this morning, and she was still in a robe that barely covered her backside. Her already thin frame was getting thinner. Her eyes looked puffy from crying and glassy from lack of sleep with dark bags under them. Luckily it was Saturday and she didn't have classes. In her psych class, which she had had with Heero, Kyoju Kinoko had discussed that unless they could find a way to change human nature there would always be wars and fighting.   
  
Ayame sighed, shaking her head and sweeping the memory away. Looking out of the peephole, Ayame gasped, then screamed, "GO AWAY!" On the other side of the door, Zechs Merquise/Millardo Peacecraft pounded on the door.   
  
"Ayame Suisei! OPEN THIS DOOR! I'LL BREAK THE THING DOWN!" he yelled. "HEERO'S..." Zechs was cut off as the door opened. There stood a very disheveled, very upset looking Ayame.  
  
"What?! What about Heero?!" she asked hurriedly.   
  
Zechs looked at Ayame. The once very composed lieutenant was now this distressed child. He frowned, amazed at the turnaround. "Heero has been captured. Lady Une wants to see you at Preventer HQ."  
  
"The news said that you were on the colonies," she said, suspicious. She heard what he'd said about Heero and it hurt, but she also knew that Zechs Merquise or Millardo Peacecraft had been the leader of White Fang. Ayame had served under Colonel Zechs, she had even went to Antarctica with him and had worked on the Tall Geese as well as the Gundams Wing and Heavy Arms. Ayame wasn't just suspicious, she was down right paranoid.   
  
Zechs sighed. "Yes, I was, but Lady Une felt it necessary for me to return."  
  
Ayame got a niggling feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Who... how did..."  
  
"The other pilots told me that you and Yuy were friends," he said cutting her off. Heero, on the other hand, had been pretty tight lipped around him and the other pilots. He was practically non-existent around Relena.  
  
Ayame seemed to be thinking. "Give me a few minutes, Zechs. Come in and sit down," she said. Zechs closed the door and Ayame headed for her bedroom.   
  
Standing for a few seconds, Zechs sighed. He thought Ayame had changed, but as he looked around he realized that she really hadn't. The room was painted white with finished oak wood floors and black leather furniture. A laptop computer sat in a corner of the room on a wooden desk; who ever sat behind it could see the people in the room and the door, but nobody could see the screen of the computer. A fencing sword hung behind the desk and an artist rendition of the Wing Zero hung beneath it. He walked over to a curio cabinet. To the right of him was a sliding door that lead to the balcony; he'd bet her room had its own door out to it as well. Zechs turned his attention back to the cabinet, it was filled with medals and pictures. The first picture to catch his eye was one from when Ayame had first joined OZ at 11 (her father, an aristocrat himself and loyal Treize supporter, had pulled strings to get her in, Zechs remembered) it was she and three of her male classmates. All four stood saluting to a picture of someone he couldn't see. The only thing was, they all had their tongues stuck out and were flipping the bird with their left hands.   
  
He looked at the other pictures. There was only one of Heero in it; Zechs couldn't tell when it was taken, but it must have been in the last two years. A white silk shirt was slung over his lithe body and he was at the foot of a bed. Blue jeans had yet to be buttoned or zipped and Heero was... "He's smiling?" Zechs asked himself. A bright spot in the mirror behind Heero drew Zechs' attention, there he saw an almost nude Ayame with a camera obscuring her face. 'Ah,' Zechs thought, 'that explains it.'  
  
A picture on the top shelve was of himself, Lucrezia Noin, and Ayame at the Lake Victoria Base just after Ayame had been promoted to Lieutenant. Lucrezia or Lu, as Ayame had called her, was wearing Zechs' red jacket; Ayame had his helmet on. Zechs was giving Lu a hug from behind. It was one of a few pictures of the three of them together. "I'm not wearing my helmet in any of these pictures," he murmured as he looked at them. He smiled and kept looking. In a frame he saw a line she had written, it was familiar but changed. "Life is like an endless waltz. Someone asks you to dance and you say, 'No, I'd like to sit it out'," he read aloud and smirked. "I'll tell Mariemaia that when I see her."   
  
He looked in the cabinet a little longer. He found a picture of a family, a husband, his wife and their two children. It had been pushed to the back of the cabinet and almost hidden by the picture of Heero. It was Ayame's family. Her father was a tall, blond haired man with glassy brown eyes; his wife was petite with black hair and dull golden eyes. Ayame's brother looked to be an exact replica of his father, while she obviously mirrored her mother.  
  
"Having fun, Zechs?" Ayame asked.  
  
The former Lightening Baron turned around and was stunned for a second time that day. Ayame had down a 180 in the past five minutes, her hair was brushed and pulled back into a braid, a pair of light purple leather pants hung on her like second skin, a black long sleeved shirt that laced up the middle of her front did the same. A pendant hung between her small breasts... a locket that carried a picture of Heero and her that had been taken in a photo booth at a carnival.  
  
"It's February, there's snow on the ground, you're gonna freeze your ass off," he said.  
  
"I'll wear a coat, let's go," she said. "I'll follow you in my car."  
  
"Fine," Zechs said, slightly hurt at the wary yet accusatory tone in her voice but understanding why none the less. Being the former leader of a group that had tried to destroy the world tended to make a person less than trusted.  
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A cold wind swept through the garage at Preventer HQ sending a shiver up Zechs' spine, Ayame walked on as if the wind didn't bother her. "Think it's going to snow, again?" Zechs asked, trying desperately to make small talk. The silence was uncomfortable.  
  
"Hnnn," was all she said. Zechs rolled his eyes and made a mental note that if you were around Heero too long, he began to affect your conversational skills. Inside the building Zechs quickly pushed past the other Preventers and into Lady Une's office. Ayame walked quietly into the office and stood silently until Une finally noticed their presence. Even after all her years in OZ she had only met Lady Une once; they had saluted, said hello, and been on their separate ways. "You wished to see me, Ma'am?"  
  
"Yes, Ms. Suisei," Une said skipping all formalities. Rising from her desk she started shuffling paper as if looking for something. "If I recall correctly you had great stealth skill." Ayame nodded and Une continued, "I was wondering if you would be interested in one final mission."  
  
"Colonel?"  
  
"It's not colonel anymore. Just call me Une," she said. "I want you to rescue one of or men, Heero Yuy." Then it dawned on Ayame that maybe Une didn't know that Heero and she were involved.   
  
Behind Ayame, Zechs gasped but before he said anything she cut him off. "If I were to accept, I would first have to look over any information you have. See if a mission would be at all possible, as well as know exactly what I'm doing."  
  
"Yes, I know. This is all the information we have," Une said handing Ayame a folder that she had pulled out of a stack of papers. "Inside you will find the original mission and the information on the building." Une sighed. "Should you need anything else don't hesitate to ask."  
  
"Yes, Ma'am," Ayame said taking the folder from Une. After thinking for a second she asked, "How about a computer in an office. I'd like to go over this here and see if I can't scrounge up some more information."  
  
"Of course. Zechs, could you find her an empty office?" Une asked. Ayame turned around to face Zechs as he started to speak, shooting him a death glare that could rival Heero's. Zechs swallowed and nodded. "Suisei, if you take this mission it will be dangerous. And I'm not sure I can promise you Preventer back up."  
  
Ayame turned half way around and nodded. "I know," she said. Turning to Zechs, she smiled and said, "Lead the way."  
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	3. Battles, Brothers, and Boyfriends... OH ...

Neko-Chan: *Looks dazed* Working to much... The beach... Must go out... *Jumps out of the nearest window*  
  
T. K.: Neko-Chan! Get back here! Figures. Muses always run off when you need them most. That's okay, I'll get a new one. *Looks around her room and reaches for her phone* Heero's a little OOC in this story but you have to remember he has put his past behind him and is no longer the 'Perfect Soldier'. If you see /these/ around a word, it means it emphasized. ~These~ mean flashbacks. *These* are for names during thoughts and letters.   
  
T.K.: Translations: Okiru: Get up. Oi: Hey; Konnichiwa: Hello. If you didn't know the last two you've never read fan fiction before and arigato (thank you) for letting my story be your first. I hope it doesn't permanatly scar you. See first chapter for a good laugh as well as the disclaimer.  
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The door to Heero's holding cell opened. "Okiru," a gruff voice said. The dim lights in the hall silhouetted a male figure.   
  
"Hnnn." Heero rose to a standing position and walked towards the doorway, obviously favoring his left leg. Hearing handcuffs clink, Heero presented his arms and felt the cold steel close around them.  
  
The man laughed. "What, you're not going to fight back?" Heero got a clear look at the guard. He had shaved black hair that seemed too short for his round, chubby face. Soulless brown eyes stared out at him from hollowed pits. His crooked, yellow teeth showed when he spoke. His belly hung over his belt. His right hand was missing the middle finger and the left one its ring and pinky. "... Kill you if you fought back," the man was saying as Heero realized he was speaking.  
  
"Hnnn," Heero growled.  
  
The man looked at Heero. "Is that all you can say?" A smile completely without humor crossed the man's face. "We'll see how long you stay this silent." Seizing Heero's arm in a crushing grip he hauled him down the corridor.  
______  
  
Ayame sat behind a wooden desk, the hum from the computer filling the room. Flipping a page she tapped something into the computer and then read through the other side of the page, occasionally circling an important bit of information with a pencil. Zechs paced the floor like a caged animal. "Enough, Zechs," Ayame said calmly, eyes never leaving the papers in front of her. "You're either going to walk a hole in the rug or in the soles of your expensive Italian shoes."  
  
"Ayame, you're a civilian now," Zechs said standing in front of the desk. "You can't do this; I don't even know why Une offered you this job."   
  
Ayame sighed and flipped another piece of paper over. "You know as well as I do; short of a Gundam Pilot, I am the best at stealth missions. I have broken into more places than I can remember. You know that's the only reason I was kept in OZ anyway."   
  
She was right. He knew it, but he wasn't about to admit it. At least not to her. Zechs shook his head. "You know as soon as Lu gets here, she's going to object to this. And then she's going to tell Une about you and Yuy. /You/ /can't/ /do/ /this/. Besides, you heard what Une said, 'No Preventer back up'."  
  
Ayame looked Zechs in the eye. "I need to do this," she said, her voice on the verge of pleading. "I feel completely useless... sitting in that apartment day after goddamned day. Just waiting for the call that says... that says Heero's been killed." Zechs had no response to that... he knew that feeling. He was sure Noin knew that feeling as well. Without another word Zechs started pacing again and Ayame typed something into the computer.  
______  
  
Heero was cold. Actually, he was more like freezing. Heero had been outside what appeared to be an old Alliance military base for half an hour and the snow had started to fall adding to the foot or more that was already on the ground. It had been snowing on and off since they had been outside and the sun had long since set.  
  
Heero would have tried to escape but a pair a leg shackles had been placed on him no sooner than he had stepped outside. Shivering slightly, he wished he'd worn more clothes, his tank top and jeans just not cutting it. A scowl had settled over his face and his jaw was clenched in anger but also to keep his teeth from chattering. In front of him the guard burrowed deeper into his snow parka.  
  
"Cold enough for you?" A voice asked, taunting him from behind. The voice belonged to a man who spoke with an American accent even though he was talking in Japanese. "Don't you know to look at someone when they speak to you?" Heero's back stiffened as he felt warm fingers on his shoulder but he refused to face the mocker. "You are so very rude. Isn't he Dwight?" The man asked Heero's guard in English.  
  
"Yes, Sir, he is," Dwight said with the barest stammer; Heero wonder if it was from the cold or the fear.  
  
The man chuckled. He knew what respect his underlings held him in. He spoke again in English, "Go inside and get warmed up, Dwight. And send someone in your place." Heero heard the metal door open and then slam shut as a hard wind swept across the Siberian Tundra. The man said in Japanese, "They are afraid of me. You surely must have noticed his hands, Gundam Pilot Heero Yuy. I took those fingers." The man laughed maniacally and stepped in to view. "My name is William Verhelst," he said. Looking at him, Heero realized Verhelst was probably only a few years older than he was. 6'2" and well built, Verhelst looked like he should have been a football player. His dirty blond hair was cut short and gelled down; his brown eyes held intelligence but was unstable at the same time.  
  
"Well, you already seem to know who I am," Heero said in a monotone.   
  
Verhelst looked at Heero. "Hai." Verhelst glanced at the door behind Heero. "I have a feeling the other pilots are out here somewhere. Well, at least three of them. I was disappointed that Duo Maxwell wasn't going to make it out here. But that was my fault. I should have known that the Preventers would have contacted you and your friends to protect that peace-loving wench. It was entirely her fault. But then again, this whole situation is her fault."  
  
Heero was confused at the statement. "How is this her fault?"  
  
"If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be standing here. My father would be alive right now," Verhelst said. "If she hadn't disbanded the Romefeller Foundation, my father would have gained his position on council and kept his mind! Then he would have never killed himself and tried to take my dear mother with him. No, she didn't die... Father just took her mind with him to Hell!"  
  
Heero was speechless for a few seconds at the outburst. "There was no one left in the Romefeller Foundation. They were all killed!" Heero pointedly explained.  
  
Verhelst's eyes narrowed in anger; he backhanded Heero into the snow. "No! There were representatives who stayed on Earth. They were the smart ones. They knew what would happen."  
  
Heero looked up from the snow but didn't attempt to get back on his feet. "Then why didn't they fight to keep Romefeller together?" The question earned Heero a swift kick in the stomach.  
  
"Who would want to stand up to someone as powerful as a Peacecraft," Verhelst fairly spat. "All that girl would have had to do was call her precious friends the Gundam Pilots and the Preventers... and POOF the threat would be eradicated." The metal door to the prison opened and closed quietly and Verhelst looked up. "Ah, April. My dear, would you please show our guest back to his room?"  
______  
  
Ayame's butt was going numb as she sat in the empty office. Zechs had left the room to pace in the hall as well as wait for Noin. Ayame stared blankly at the computer screen waiting for a few emails from old friends of hers. The computer toned and Ayame quickly clicked the envelope icon that had popped up on screen, effectively shutting it up.  
  
'To: Suisei ASuisei@excite.com  
From: Adams BAdams@hotmail.com  
Subject: Re: Information.'  
  
'Suisei,' the letter started. 'Well, I'll be damned. I know you're in a hurry, so I'll tell you what I know and what I've heard.  
  
'First, the people you're looking into aren't of the White Fang operation. It's a group of people looking to reorganize Romefeller, and they're ready, very willing, and not to mention more than able to start a war for their /cause/. It looks like White Fang because they're after a lot of the same people, you know, the ones that let pacifism take over earth and space. There are at least two-hundred-thousand soldiers and more than half of them are trained MS pilots from the Alliance and the evil twin of the Treize Faction,' the letter said, Adams referring to the part of OZ that had stayed loyal to the Romefeller Foundation. 'A few of the former Romies,' Romies had been the name a friend had come up with to further insult the foundation, 'have also started donating to a group called *The Aristocrats of Tomorrow*. It is /supposed/ to teach their future generations about the war and how not to let history repeat itself, or the cover up of our little group. Another thing, the name of this not-so-small army is *The Sable Wolfs*. Jesus, The Sable Wolfs? Ah-HAHAHA!!! ...Sorry. But while I'm on the subject of laughable, guess who is among the ranks of The Sable Wolfs... that's right --- my dear sister. God how could April do this?  
  
'And brace yourself, Suisei, I'm not the only one with a traitorous sibling.'  
  
"Bill?" Ayame asked herself before continuing.  
  
'That's right, our very own William Verhelst is not only fighting for The Sable Wolfs but leading them. That's one Hell of an older brother you got there Ayame. Bill has relocated his band of not-so-merry men to a more northern part of Siberia. Longitude-150°, Latitude-86°. You can thank our good friend Sgt. Alan Reed for this information.'  
  
"How did Alan Reed know where Bill was?" Ayame asked herself. Alan Reed was an old Alliance member who Ayame had met in China. She was there on a fact finding mission for Zechs; he was assigned to the local base and had been ordered to 'show her around'.   
  
'Ayame, be careful if you pursue this... I don't need to lose anymore friends to the Gundam Pilots. Even if you are in love with this one. Oh, by the way... if he ever hurts or gets you hurt, I will kill him. Got me?  
  
'Love Ya,  
Brandy Adams'  
  
Ayame stood up and stretched. 'This is gonna be tough,' she thought to herself. 'Battles, brothers, and boyfriends, oh my.'  
______  
  
Down the hall Zechs stepped out of the doors to the elevators as they opened. "Zechs," Noin said as she stepped out behind him, "are you sure that we are going to let her do this? For Christ's sakes she only nineteen; she isn't even a Preventer! She hasn't been part of an operation this scale since she was under your command."  
  
"Lu, I know that this goes against every protocol, but Une's got her mind made up. She wants Ayame to do this and there is no chance in Hell that she's going to change her mind." Zechs sighed. "And besides," he said, his voice dropping to a confidential level, "Ayame's the best OZ ever had."  
  
Noin glared at her husband. "Do you know when she wants to get started?"  
  
Zechs shook his head and started walking. "She hasn't officially accepted this mission yet."  
  
"But you know it's not really a question of if but when," she said.  
  
"I know." Zechs sighed. "We could back her up," he suggested.   
  
Noin rolled her eyes. "We'd just slow her down. She moves so quickly we'd just get left behind."  
  
"Who wouldn't?" Zechs asked with a thin laugh.  
  
"A Gundam Pilot," Noin said thoughtfully.   
  
"We're all busy," a new voice deadpanned.  
  
"Trowa!" Noin exclaimed with a jump as the tallest pilot walked up to them.  
  
Zechs looked over Trowa's shoulder at the elevator. "I used the stairs," Trowa said catching Zechs' train of thought. "Now, what's this about Ayame going on a mission? And why would she need back up?"  
  
"She's being an idiot!" Noin stated.   
  
"Lu," Zechs growled in warning.  
  
Noin continued, "Une contacted her today. She's going on a mission to rescue Heero."  
  
Trowa arched his eyebrow. "What wrong with that? I've read her OZ personnel record; she was good. She isn't Duo, but she's close," he said nonchalantly.  
  
Zechs' mouth was set in a grimace but his eyes lit up. 'Damn,' he thought in amazement. 'Ayame has Trowa's approval.'  
  
"She may have /been/ good, but now she's a civilian," Noin said still doubting Ayame's chances for success. "And how did you get a hold of those records?" she asked taking Trowa, catching him off guard.  
  
"I don't think it matters," Trowa said, undaunted by Noin's skepticism, "but training like she received is never truly forgotten. Still, if you think she shouldn't go alone, we remaining pilots will draw straws or something. Could you two take over with Relena; Quatre and I will go to the hospital and tell Duo and Wufei about Ayame. Since I'm already here, I want to talk to her and see how she feels about it."  
  
"Why are you here?" Zechs asked as he started walking towards the office where Ayame was.  
  
"I came to get Wufei's chess set," Trowa said. "Duo's going stir crazy at the hospital. He has too much energy to sleep."  
  
Noin let out a small laugh. "So Wufei's going to bore him into unconsciousness?"  
  
"You've played chess with Wufei, I see," Trowa said.  
  
"Yeah, I almost fell asleep before we started," Noin said. Zechs turned into the office where Ayame was.  
  
"Oi," Ayame said; she had received another email while he was gone. This one was from an old academy friend named Justin Wulff. It wasn't that much different from Brandy's letter, saying pretty much the same thing --- a few more names of members and a little more info on the 'Aristocrats of Tomorrow'. She had also just gotten off the phone with Une.  
  
Ayame looked up and said, "Konnichiwa, Trowa... Noin. I suppose you've been told about what I'm going to do. And now it's official; I called Une and told her." Zechs and Noin scowled; Trowa looked impassive. Ayame ignored the couple's scowls and continued on, "I also have bad news and more bad news. Which do you want to here first?" Noin, Zechs, and Trowa exchanged glances and collectively sighed.  



	4. New Friends and Old Scars

T. K.: Neko-Chan is still gone and I'm feeling frustrated so I have employed a chibi to be my muse until Amora finds me a new one or Neko-Chan comes home. *Pulls Chibi Quatre out of hammerspace*  
  
C. Quatre: Oi! *Gets the Zero System look*  
  
T. K.: *Backing away and searching for something in hammerspace* Here, here's your Trowa doll.  
  
C. Quatre: *Hugs Trowa doll* Trowa!   
  
T. K.: ^-^; I own nothing; check my hammerspace. See, *opens the space-time rift* empty.  
  
C. Quatre: That's a whole lot of nothing!  
  
T. K.: _ 


	5. And They're Off...

T. K.: Konnyanichiwa!   
  
Neko-Chan: *Grumbles* Damn authoress.  
  
T. K.: You'll have to excuse the disgruntled muse. He's a wee bit, uh, well, pissed.  
  
Neko-Chan: DAMN STRAIGHT.  
  
T. K.: Neko-Chan... Look, I said I was sorry.  
  
Neko-Chan: That you are. And on another note, I'm too old to be a chan anymore.  
  
T. K.: *confused* A chan? *Suddenly remembering her Japanese* OH! Fine, okay, Neko-Kun. I tried to call Amora and tell her you came back, but she didn't pick up. I left a message on the machine. I'm sure she'll hear it before brings the new muse.  
  
Neko-Chan, now Neko-Kun: Fine. *Sighs* Okay.  
  
T. K.: Disclaimer, please!  
  
Neko-Kun: We don't own Gundam or anything else!   
  
T. K.: I have two translations, first one --- Yuri has two meanings... one is a female/female relation, the other is lily. I am using it in the sense of the flower, not the relationship. Second one --- Ayame Suisei or Ayame no Suisei as it will be read, means Iris of Mercury.   
  
Neko-Kun: I hope Amora got the message.  
  
*Doorbell rings*  
  
???: OI! Muse Delivery!  
  
T. K.: *sarcastically* Hehehe, funny Amora. You're a laugh riot.  
  
Neko-Kun: Omae O Korosu, T. K. Sakura.  
  
Amora: T. K.?  
  
T. K.: Review please, part six will be out soon... if I'm still alive. Coming, Amora!  
______  
  
Heero sat in the dark, alone again; it had been hours since they threw him back in there. His every instinct told him something was about to happen. But the question was what. Lying down, he knew he shouldn't fall asleep but it was hard to keep his eyes open. 'I want to go home. Ayame no Suisei, my Iris of Mercury, I want to be with you again,' was Heero's last conscience thought.  
______  
  
Lady Une sat behind her desk. The thought that ran though her head when Ayame and Wufei walked in the door was, 'This isn't a good thing.'  
  
"WE are going to Siberia now, Une," Wufei said as Une stood up to greet them.  
  
"No, /Officer/ Chang, she is. You are staying here," Une said. "There was another attempt on Vice-Minister Dorlian life tonight."  
  
"Send Winner," Wufei growled, Une's eyes narrowed. Ayame had seen that look once when she had met Lady Une, a soldier had back talked a commanding officer and Une... Une shot him where he stood.  
  
"No! You will not tell me who I can and cannot send. You ARE going. Quatre is going back to L4 tomorrow."  
  
"Wufei," Ayame said placing a calming hand on his. "Forget it. I'll go and I'll be fine. You protect Miss Peacecraft."  
  
Wufei snarled and stalked out of the room.  
  
"I'm going, Colonel," Ayame said quietly then followed the path Wufei had taken.  
  
A few seconds after their departure Une's secretary entered. "I've got that file you wanted earlier," the young Chinese girl, Min, said laying the manila folder on her desk.   
  
"Thank you, Min. You may go home." Une picked up the folder and opened it after the door was closed.   
  
It read 'Ayame Suisei-Verhelst. Father: Richard Verhelst (Deceased December 30, A.C. 198) Mother: Yuri Suisei-Verhelst (Certified Insane: January 6, A.C. 199) Sibling(s): William Verhelst (Reported missing January 10, A.C. 199)  
  
"I thought as much," Une said to no one.  
______  
  
"Wufei," Ayame called.  
  
"NANI?!" he all but yelled, spinning around, furious to have been ordered around like so.  
  
Ayame almost took a step back from the enraged Chinaman but instead said, "Wufei, it'll be okay.  
  
Wufei took a deep breath. "Hai. It will be. I'm coming with you."  
  
She thought as much. "I have to tell Zechs I'm going," Ayame said carefully.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"No other reason than I want to." Ayame looked Wufei in the eye and said, "Besides, he might be able to help." Wufei nodded and walked down the hall. Ayame followed Wufei down the corridor, a million thoughts running through her mind.  
  
"Do you think we should do this?" Ayame asked.  
  
"Hai," Wufei said, turning a corner.  
  
"Millardo!"  
  
Ayame and Wufei stopped in middle of the hall as they saw Relena, Zechs, and Noin walking towards them, Relena almost begging them for something. She would have looked diplomatic in her pants suit, if it weren't for the fact it was pink.  
  
"NO," Noin and Zechs said firmly, if not a bit loudly. Zechs pulled at the tie of his uniform.  
  
"Can this be good?" Ayame asked.  
  
"Doubt it," Wufei said dryly.  
  
"Millardo, please, is there any information on Heero. I must know," Relena said.  
  
Zechs looked down at his sister, "I can't tell you," he said.  
  
"But, I love him." Relena gripped his arm.  
  
"I don't care how much you THINK you love him, it's none of your business," Zechs said scathingly looking at Relena then down the hallway where Noin, he'd noticed, was staring.   
  
'Uh-oh,' Noin was thinking. Ayame's jaw had clenched but otherwise she appeared to be fine. Noin knew this look as the calm before she hurt someone. Many of her more arrogant classmates had encountered this look before she dumped coffee in their laps in the cafeteria or received boots to the jaws in self-defense.  
  
"Konnichiwa, Lu, Zechs, and Miss Relena right?" Ayame said, her voice as docile as a kitten's meow.  
  
"Hai, you're that girl. What's your name?" Relena asked. Zechs', Noin's, and Wufei's stomachs all dropped to their knees.  
  
Ayame smiled and extended her hand. As Relena took it, Zechs fought the urge to grab Relena's hand. "Name's Ayame Suisei, Miss Relena," she said gently shaking her hand then releasing it.  
  
Relena clasped her hands in front of her. "Well, it was a pleasure seeing you again. Now if you'll excuse us, I need to finish talking to my brother."  
  
'Push off, this is our dig site!' Wufei thought, quoting a line from one of Duo's favorite movies, The Mummy. 'I have been with that baka TOO long.' He smiled to himself.  
  
"Gomen, Miss Relena, but I have Preventer business to discuss with Zechs and Noin," Ayame said with a bow then walking past her. Relena gave a start as Wufei followed.   
  
"I'm sorry, Relena. We'll finish this later," Zechs said.  
  
"Oh," Wufei said turning to Relena, "have you talked to Une recently?"  
  
"Yes, she told me that you would be watching me tonight."  
  
"Gomen, Miss Peacecraft, but there has been a change in plans. Your current bodyguard will be watching you all night," Wufei said, not in the least sorry about what he was doing.  
  
As they walked away, Relena, slack jawed, stomped the floor her foot then went back to her bodyguard's office.  
______  
  
"Thank you for not hurting her," Zechs said.  
  
"At least not physically," Noin threw in.  
  
Ayame shrugged her shoulders in an effort to relieve the tension in them. It wasn't working.   
  
"Right," Wufei said mistaking her shrug for a 'whatever'. "We have news. I am going with Ayame."  
  
"Did Une allow this?"  
  
Ayame snickered. "Nai."  
  
"Huh?" Noin and Zechs asked.  
  
"Lady Une has denied me leave. I was to return to your sister's side tonight," Wufei answered.  
  
"Really?" Zechs asked.   
  
"Hai."  
  
Zechs looked at Ayame and asked, "What's does this mean?"  
  
Ayame shrugged again then said, "It means Wufei's going, without permission. He could possibly lose his job for challenging orders."  
  
"So what's the plan?" Noin asked.  
  
"You'll be proud of the plan, Ma'am," Ayame said. Noin arched an eyebrow. "But I'd really rather tell you anywhere but here."  
  
"Can anyone join?" Trowa asked stepping out of an office, Sally Po behind him.  
  
Ayame smiled.  
______  
  
April Adams heart started racing as she entered Verhelst's Game Room.   
  
"Yes," he called from his chair.  
  
April squared her shoulders. "Sir, the prisoner keeps mumbling in his sleep."  
  
"What's he saying?" Verhelst asked rising from his chair.  
  
April started to shrug but stopped herself. "Something about Tokyo, rain, and Mercury," she said.  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Should we wake him or ignore, Sir?"  
  
"No," he answered walking towards her and more specifically the door behind her. "I wish to hear his mumblings."  
______  
  
Verhelst's fist clenched as Heero's mumblings continued. Ayame no Suisei he'd heard Heero say, Iris of Mercury. 'He knows my sister!' Bill screamed mentally. 'On second thought... This may work to my advantage,' he decided, calming down.  
______   
  
An hour had past and the supplies needed had been gathered. Now Zechs, Sally, Wufei, and Ayame stood outside at the airport waiting for the planes that Zechs had managed to commandeer.  
  
"So what's the plan?" Sally asked pulling nervously at one of her braids.  
  
Ayame looked at her. "Zechs has a contact in Russia whom we'll be meeting up with at the former Thomas Base in Noril'sk. Once there, we infiltrate Verhelst base, the Kara Sea Base, save Heero and blow the thing sky-high."  
  
"Simplicity itself, On'na," Wufei said. Sally glared at him a second then laughed. After a few seconds everyone was quiet again  
  
"You know," Zechs said. "We could be sentenced to death for this, right?"  
  
"Not having second thoughts are you?" Wufei asked burrowing into his coat, Ayame followed suit.  
  
"Better not be," Ayame said, trying to sound menacing but ended up laughing at herself.  
  
Zechs smiled and said, "But, now that I think about it, if we get into trouble, we can run to the Sank Kingdom."  
  
"What about Relena?" Wufei asked.  
  
"She can stay."  
  
Ayame smiled wickedly and said, "As long as she stays away from Heero."  
  
With that said two unmarked jet-planes rolled out on to the tarmac in front of them.   
  
"Let's GO!" Trowa called from inside one of them.   
______  



	6. Hope

T. K.: *standing next to a sandy blonde named Suisho Amora Mokuren* Hi!  
  
Neko-Kun: Hnnn.  
  
Amora: I'm sorry, Neko-Ch--Kun.  
  
T. K.: *scowls briefly* Amora said she was sorry! I said I was sorry!   
  
Neko-Kun: There is still a new muse in this house.  
  
T. K.: OH! By the way, we're moving.   
  
Neko-Kun: No da.  
  
T. K.: I was talking to them. *Motions towards audience* We're in Florida, but we are moving to Tennessee.   
  
Neko-Kun: For those of you who don't know where that is, it's next to N. Carolina, below Kentucky and Virginia, and above Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. *Smug smile*  
  
T. K.: *looks blandly at muse* Anyways, that is why it's taken so long to get this chapter out as well as why it's so short. I hope the next one is longer *glares at Neko-Kun*.  
  
*A white ferret runs threw doorway*  
  
T. K.: This is Tsuki.   
  
Tsuki: *blinks*  
  
Amora: *digging threw hammer space pouch* Ah, here we go. *Pulls wand from bag* I got this for you at Ollivander's Wand Shop. It's made specifically for muse use; you tap the muse and say, 'Niku'.  
  
T. K.: *taps ferret* Niku.  
  
*A cloud of smoke engulfs the room but quickly clears. Where the ferret was now stands a man about 5'10" with platinum blonde hair, stormy gray eyes, whiskers, and a bushy tail the same color as his hair. *  
  
Tsuki: *with a British accent* Ah, hullo.  
  
Amora: If you want him back in animal form say, 'Ferroto' and for Neko-Kun say, 'Tigai'.  
  
T. K.: Well, arigato, Amora. Would one of you two please do the disclaimer? I'm sure our audience is sick of this muse soap opera.  
  
Neko-Kun: *mutters* I know I am.  
  
Tsuki: T. K. doesn't own Gundam Wing. Bandai does.  
  
T. K.: If there are any Harry Potter fans out there, can you please tell me what color Ginny Weasley's eyes are. Review! Arigato!   
______  
  
Nothing was said, there just weren't any words important enough to break the silence, which filled the plane that carried Ayame, Trowa, and Wufei. Noin, Sally, and Zechs had taken the other plane. Wufei was meditating while Trowa and Ayame sat in the cockpit mulling over whatever crossed their minds. Finally, a loud beeping from the communicator drew their attention and broke the suffocating silence.  
  
Pushing a button, Ayame said, "Go ahead."  
  
"Ayame Suisei?" asked a mousy, brown hair and brown-eyed man.  
  
"That's me."  
  
The man on the other end nodded. "Name's Melvin Fennec calling from Thomas Base, there's a woman hear that says you called her. Name's Brandy Adams," he said reading from an ID card then holding it up for her to see.  
  
"Yeah, she's with me."  
  
"Okay then. What's your ETA?"   
  
Ayame glanced at the controls in front of her and said, "Twenty minutes."  
  
"See you then. Over and out."  
  
"I see you called in your friend," Trowa said.  
  
Ayame shook her head, "Yeah, I did. She's not only good at gathering information, but she good with explosives as well."  
  
"I see. You should go change into your cold weather gear."  
  
"Going," she said. "Oh, and Trowa, thanks for coming."  
  
Ayame quietly made her way through the plane past Wufei who had been in the Lotus Position for two of the almost four hours they had been flying. 'He's going to be stiff,' Ayame thought as she closed the door to the small water closet to change.  
  
Over the PA system Trowa cleared his throat loudly and said in his usual monotone voice, "We are about to land. Please finish all boring activities and return to your seats in the next fifteen minutes. That is all."  
  
"INJUSTICE, BARTON!"  
_____  
  
It was almost -15 degrees when the two planes touched down at a little past midnight Tokyo time and a little past 10 o'clock in Noril'sk. Stepping out of the plane, Ayame noticed two people standing in the doorway of the former Thomas Base.  
  
"Ayame!" Brandy Adams called out before barreling her over in a bear hug, Ayame would have never known it was her under that heavy fur parka. She laughed out loud at Brandy's appearance, although most of the others, with the exception of herself, Noin, and Zechs, were dressed the same, she looked like the common conception of an Eskimo.   
  
"What?" Brandy asked. Ayame motion towards her snow gear. "Oh, you!" Brandy put her hands on what Ayame assumed to be her hips. "Sorry, we can't all be as fashionable as you are!" She was right; Ayame looked like she was modeling the latest winter gear in a lightweight dark gray long coat with fur lined cuffs and hood with a matching jumper underneath.   
  
Ayame looked at herself and said yelling over the high winds of the Tundra, "What? This old thing... I've had it for years."  
  
Ayame knew that Brandy scowled then smiled widely. "I remember; I had one too. But mine got ripped."  
  
"Adams..." Ayame paused and shook her head in exasperation, "it's great to see you again!" Ayame said.  
  
The second person had stepped out of the doorway and was standing behind Brandy. "Sir! Ma'am!" The person said saluting Zechs and Noin.  
  
"Fennec, that's not necessary," Zechs said.  
  
"Sorry," he said. "Hello, name's Melvin Fennec. But, please, call me Mel. I have the materials and snowmobiles you asked for... Oh, and Sir, it's a pleasure to be helping you." Everyone introduced her or himself then filed into the former Thomas Base. All eight people, Ayame Suisei, Brandy Adams, Chang Wufei, Lucrezia Merquise-Noin, Mel Fennec, Sally Po, Trowa Barton, and Zechs Merquise settled into the large hangar area.  
  
Ayame was the last one to sit down at a table that had been set up, laid the schematics of Verhelst's Base down and everyone quieted. "I want to put a disclaimer here--- this is NOT Preventer approved and if you are here under any other impression, you are free to leave." Everyone laughed relieving some of the tension and Ayame allowed herself a small smile. Zechs nodded and Ayame started to explain the plan that she had made. "From here, Chang Wufei and I, with Zechs and Lu as back up will head for Verhelst's base. But there is a tracking system that goes along the area surrounding the base, making a boundary of sorts. We will wait for our four computer specialists to jam the enemy's tracking systems and give us the advantage, at which point, we will infiltrate Verhelst's base what used the Kara Sea Base, plant our explosives inside.  
  
"Zechs and Lu will place theirs explosives on the outside of the base, Wufei and I will retrieve Heero Yuy, we then back track and leave through the same vent we came in through, meet Lu and Zechs outside, and blow the place to Hades. The whole plan takes an hour, tops. Have you-"  
  
Brandy, who was a dirty-blonde, doe-eyed girl about Ayame's height, cut in, "The explosives are ready."  
  
Ayame smiled, 'Still the same Adams I've known all these years.' Ayame and Brandy had a long history; Ayame had actually been friends with April Adams, at one time. But April had started to grate on her nerves and Ayame found herself growing closer to Brandy and further from April until she stopped talking to April and started being friend with Brandy. But by then Brandy had been 15 and enrolled in Specials training and went off to Victoria. Then in some twist of fate, Ayame had ended up there herself a year later; Ayame figured somebody up in the Heavens must like them. Since then, they had been pretty close friends.   
  
"All right then!" Ayame said clapping her hands together. "Let's get going, shall we?"  
  
Trowa, Sally, and Mel walked off to a makeshift computer room that he had set up. Ayame, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs followed Brandy back to a workbench where she showed them her handy work. Noin felt proud of her former students; she also felt a little sad for everyone.   
  
'This is the life we lead, Lucrezia,' she told herself.  
______  
  
Heero cried out as something hit his ribs, pulling him from a troubled sleep. The thing hit him again but Heero held his tongue this time and rolled over onto his hand and knees.  
  
"What?!" he asked all but yelling between coughing fits.  
  
Verhelst looked down on his prisoner and delivered another vicious kick to his mid-section, a look between a sneer and smirk crossing his face. "Get up and come with me," he said.  
  
Slowly dragging himself off the floor, Heero ordered himself to remember his training. Standing up to his full height of 5'10" he glared at Verhelst and exhaled slowly, his eyes becoming cold, hard, and unforgiving. Under the stare of the Perfect Soldier Verhelst felt something foreign and unfamiliar in the pit of his stomach... he felt fear. Heero watched Verhelst with dead eyes; Heero knew Verhelst from somewhere but just where escaped his grasp.  
  
"Your arms, please," Verhelst said. Heero did as he was told and held out his arm and watched as Verhelst clasped the cuffs on. "Out," Verhelst ordered and watched as Heero walked out then followed, the cell door closing firmly behind him.  
______  
  
"Ayame!" Mel called.  
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"Tracking will be down in half an hour."  
  
Ayame looked at her watch. 'Good,' she thought, 'if we leave now, we'll enter their boundaries just a few minutes after the feed goes off.'  
  
"All right. How long before they can get it back on-line?" Ayame asked, moving from the table where she had been talking with Brandy and slipping a pager onto her waistband.  
  
Mel thought for a second then answered, "Twenty minutes... give or take."  
  
'Give or take,' Ayame thought. 'Kami-Sama. Okay, from the boundary in is about ten minutes to the base on foot. It's just a chance we'll have to take...' Brandy handed her the pack that carried a fourth the hardware, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs carried the others one-fourths, there were twenty-eight devices in all.  
  
Brandy hugged Ayame and said, "Be careful."  
  
Ayame gave her a lopsided smile. "Always am."  
  
"No you're not," Brandy argued. Ayame winked and walked to her snowmobile.  
  
"Let's move out!" Ayame yelled. Zechs, Noin, and Wufei all mounted their snowmobiles and followed Ayame's lead through the thick forest surrounding Thomas Base.   
  
There seem to be an absence of sound as the four moved across the Tundra, the motors of the snowmobiles' engines were mere hums, and, like the time, were instantly swept away by the wind. The naked branch were the only thing obscuring the sky filled with millions of stars and a half moon.  
  
Ayame watched the area ahead of her, watched as what was a speck on the horizon grew into the military complex. Her pager went off, Fennec had shutdown the tracking system; Ayame gunned the snowmobile for the last minute then stopped at the edge of the clearing and dismounted, the others following suit.  
  
"On foot from here," she said before taking off in a crouched sprint. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Zechs and Noin go off to one side of the building while Wufei followed her. The snow beneath her feet gave way easily as she quietly made her way to the north side of the building. Ayame scanned the north wall for her choice of entrance, and found the three-by-three ventilation grate... twenty feet off the ground.  
  
"Kisama," Wufei swore.  
  
"Agreed," Ayame scowled.  
  
Wufei sidled the wall next to Ayame as she tried to figure out what to do.  
______  
  
Verhelst had lead Heero to a room filled with stuffed animal and dazzling art then told him sit.  
  
"My trophy room," Verhelst said as if he were showing it to a friend for the first time.  
  
"Hnnn," was Heero's reply.  
  
Verhelst looked affronted. "You don't like it?" he asked.  
  
Heero eyes scanned the room seeing the objects without truly seeing them before focusing on the glass case.  
  
Verhelst smiled, not kindly, and said, "That will soon hold the greatest trophy of all."  
  
Heero narrowed his eyes, trying to read the plague from where he sat.  
  
"Go and read it," Verhelst said with a flick of his hand. Heero instead leaned back into his chair, the warmth of the fire drove the numbness from his body. "Don't want to?" Verhelst asked. "That's fine, I need to have it changed." Heero laid his head back, trying to drowned Verhelst's voice out but still aware of his every move, the soft footsteps edging towards the chair, a rustle of cloth, then a small pop.   
  
Verhelst stopped behind Heero's chair; leaning close to Heero's ear he whispered, "I do hope you like this room, you and my sister will be spending eternity in it." A quick prick and Heero knew what that pop was, it was the cap coming off a syringe.   
  
'His sister, oh Kami, the picture in the cabinet! AYAME!' Heero mind was going a mile a minute as the room grew dim and soon it seemed that the fire was extinguished.  
______  
  
"Rope?" Wufei asked as if offering her a cigarette. Ayame turned to him, looking incredulous, as he removed a rope with grappling hook from his pack.  
  
"Wufei," she said, her voice full of happiness, "I would kiss you if I wasn't dating Heero."  
  
Wufei smirked. "I'm afraid it'd probably get back to Maxwell and then I'd be sleeping on the couch for months."  
  
Ayame smiled watching Wufei swing the hook up and smiled wider she heard the familiar clinks as it hit home and grabbed onto something.   
  
"Let's go," Wufei said mounting the rope.   
  
Ayame watched Wufei shimmy up the rope, then called up and asked, "Anyone ever tell you you've got a nice ass?"  
  
Wufei stopped on the rope and looked down. "On'na..." he said but his smile took the sting out of his voice.  
  
Ayame held up her hands. "Sorry, humor is just my way of dealing with reality," she explained. Scanning the grounds, she noticed absence of light; all the base's windows seemed to be covered or boarded up.  
  
Wufei swung the grate open and said, "I'm in." Ayame quickly scaled the wall and followed Wufei into the enemy's HQ. 


	7. Parting Shots

Neko-Kun: T. K...  
  
T. K.: *arms folded on the desk with her head on them* Saru!  
  
Tsuki: T. K... if you write you may feel better.  
  
T. K.: *head still on the desk* I just want to sit here.  
  
Neko-Kun: *puts hand on her shoulder* I know your life is going to Hell---  
  
T. K.: No da.  
  
Neko-Kun: *ignores her* with the only two weeks left to get your job, and the bullshit that your in-laws put you through---  
  
Tsuki: Buggers, I tell you. Barbara and Steven Arnold are complete buggers.  
  
Neko: Agreed. And your birthday coming up on the 12th and now this.  
  
T. K.: *lifts head off desk, she's been crying* He wasn't even 35! Gods, WHY?!  
  
Neko-Kun: *pats her back* I know... but we all knew your uncle Billy's blood pressure was too high.  
  
Tsuki: *nods and pushes a few strands of auburn hair out of T. K.'s face* I know it's not fair, Dearheart, but it was just his time.  
  
T. K.: *chokes back a sob* But why did he have to die?! He's gone and not coming back and I'm confused.   
  
Neko-Kun: I'm sorry to sound like this... but what's there to be confused about? He had a heart attack.  
  
Tsuki: Jigoku Taiga!  
  
Neko-Kun: Gomen Nasai! Gomen, I know you liked him; he was better than any man your aunt dated before was.   
  
T. K.: Maybe Delp women just aren't meant to raise their children with their fathers around.  
  
Tsuki: What do you mean, Love?  
  
T. K.: My father wasn't around while I was growing up, Justin and Josh's fathers aren't living with them, Makalah's father isn't around and now Savannah's father is gone. All our fathers' were out of our lives before we turned two years old.  
  
Tsuki and Neko-Kun: Ohhh.  
  
T. K.: I'll work on the story. I don't own Gundam or anything else except Ayame Suisei, April and Brandy Adams, Bill Verhelst and Melvin Fennec. One translation--- Nani no Jigoku means What the Hell. This is the shortest chapter, shorter than the last but I swear the next chapter will be longer and probably the end. Gomen. Please review and pray to the gods for my family. Ciao.  
______  
  
Heero felt himself drifting, not as though he was weightless in space but as if he was no longer in his body. He forced his eyes open and saw... nothing. Complete darkness surrounded him. Heero held his hand in front of his face; he could see it. He looked down at himself, his whole body was there and he could see it all, he was nude. He looked at himself more closely he looked fine, perfectly healthy; only thing was last time he'd looked at himself he'd been covered almost head to toe in bruises, cuts, and had a bullet wound to his left leg.   
  
"Nani no Jigoku... where am I?" Nothingness was the answer. Turning his head, Heero was met by more blackness. "Well, damn..."   
  
"Heero?"   
  
Heero swung his head back around. "Who's there?"  
  
"Heero, it me."  
  
"Ayame?" Heero asked the darkness.  
  
"Heero, don't stay here," Ayame said materializing out of nothing and standing in front of him. "Come back to me." Ayame held out her hand.  
  
Heero reached out for her and clasped her hand in his, then taking his other hand brought her face towards his and kissed her intensely on the mouth. The void they had been in suddenly disappeared in a burst of light and Heero found himself in a large empty room, alone, hands chained to the floor behind him, tears running freely down his face.   
______  
  
Ayame lowered herself out of the ventilation shaft that instead of just going straight ahead into the building actually went up for up inside the base for over sixty feet at a ninety degree angle. Breathing hard from a mix of dust and work she dusted her clothes then dug a brown package out her bag and set it on the ground next to the wall.  
  
"One," she said.   
  
Wufei nodded and said, "Once we get to the spanning bridge," Wufei waved to a bridge that connected the east catwalk to the west catwalk about fifteen feet from them, "we'll split up and I'll plant the others over there. If you get done before I get back, wait for me. We don't know what condition Heero's in---"  
  
"I know, Wufei," Ayame said waving his worry away, "just be quick. I am a woman of very little patience."  
  
Wufei nodded and Ayame walked away planting another paper wrapped explosive thirty feet away. She knew that twenty-eight bombs were overkill but she also knew that it was better to err on the side of too many than to not have enough. Keeping a quick pace, Ayame had soon reached the end of the catwalk and waited impatiently for Wufei's return.  
  
She didn't have to wait long as Wufei jogged near noiselessly to her and kept jogging as Ayame mounted the stairs and took them two at a time. Wufei still didn't say anything when they got to the bottom of the stairs, just rummaged for a smoke bomb and threw it down a corridor. A few second later thirty or so guards came tumbling out of the hall choking and gasping, then falling in a heap as the gases took full effect, rendering them unconscious. Ayame leaned over and took a ring of keys off one of the now prone bodies then taking a deep breath, made a dash into the choking cover followed closely by Wufei.  
______  
  
"The tracking came on a few moments ago," Trowa said to Brandy, who was staring quietly in the Siberian night.   
  
"Ah," was Brandy's oh-so-intelligent answer. She really didn't talk to anyone at the moment.  
  
Trowa studied Brandy for a second before leaning on the wall next to the window she was looking out.  
______  
  
Ayame listened at a door for any sign of life within while Wufei did the same at the other end of the hall. Ayame heard nothing and quickly made her way to the next door--- movement, she heard it. Taking the keys out of her jumper pocket she unlocked the door and came face to face with her worst nightmare.  
  
Verhelst smiled viciously down upon his sister. "Hello, Ayame," he said before grabbing her and pulling her into the room, the door closing behind them and locking Wufei out. "My dear sister, how are you?" Verhelst asked still smiling as he shoved her against a wall. Wufei pounded on the door.  
  
"Bill, how did you---" Verhelst put a hand over Ayame's mouth, silencing her.  
  
On the other side of the door Wufei yelled, "AYAME! OPEN THE DOOR OR I'LL KICK IT DOWN!"  
  
Verhelst acted as if he didn't hear Wufei and said, "I go by William, now. I knew that you were coming because your dear friend Alan Reed told me."  
  
Ayame moved away from Verhelst. "What did you do to him?"  
  
Verhelst arched a questioning eyebrow. "Who, Reed or Yuy?"  
  
Ayame spun around with her gun, a Desert Eagle AE, drawn. Firing a shot, it hit him in the shoulder. 'Damn it! I wanted to get in that black heart of his!' Verhelst drew his own gun and fired, the shot went wide and Ayame fired again. Verhelst kicked out making the shot go high the gun Ayame held go flying.  
  
"It looks like we're going to pick up where we left off," Verhelst said, "only this time Mommy and Daddy aren't here to save you." Verhelst lunged at Ayame and effectively pinned her to the floor beneath where they now lay.  
______  
  
Wufei had pounded on the door for almost ten minutes when he finally pulled his gun and shot the lock. With his Glock in hand he kicked the door open and was shot immediately.  
  
"WUFEI!" Ayame screamed forcing Verhelst off of her but getting no more than two feet from him before he grabbed her braid and drug her from the room. "LET GO! LET GO GODDAMN IT!" she screamed clawing and kicking at her brother.  
  
"Now, now, my dear Iris of Mercury, you don't want to keep your Heero waiting. 


	8. Final Conflicts

T. K.: This is the end... okay, maybe not. I'm writing an epilogue.

Neko: We don't own Gundam in any form.

Tsuki: But Ayame Suisei, April and Brandy Adams, and Bill Verhelst are ours.

______

"WUFEI!" Ayame screamed, forcing Verhelst off of her but getting no more than two feet from him before he grabbed her braid and drug her from the room. "LET GO! LET GO GODDAMN IT!" she screamed, clawing and kicking at her brother.

"Now, now, my dear Iris of Mercury, you don't want to keep your Heero waiting."

Wufei lay as still as possible waiting until Ayame's screams faded completely then lifted his hand, feeling where the bullet had hit just below his ribs. He smiled at the irony. 'Just where Duo was hit,' he thought and suddenly he felt determined to complete his mission and return to his koi. Wufei slowly lifted himself off the floor into a sitting position. 'Time to get back to work,' Wufei thought ruefully.

______

"Chang?" Lady Une called out as she entered his office without knocking. She knew that Wufei was just worried about Heero and stressed out about Duo; she also knew the instant she stepped fully into his office that he had disobeyed her orders, just as the last four people whom she had been to see. "Damn," she said loudly. Une sat down heavily in his chair and said, "There will be hell to pay for this later, but right now all I want, Mr. Treize, is for them to come back safely."

______

Heero silent sat with his with his legs in a half lotus position and head bowed gracefully in a silent prayer. _Kami-Sama, please hear me now. I know a murderer like me, one who has killed so many of your children, shouldn't speak to you but I only ask for your forgiveness. You gave me friends who cared and spared my life for twenty years, then you granted me the one thing I never thought possible, love. I thank you for Ayame, the one person who sees past everything I've done and loves me for who I am. Domo arigato, Kami-Sama. I sit here, humbled in your presence and ask you only for forgiveness. If I do not live another hour, minute, or second I would understand. I beg for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of those I killed. _

"Bill!" 

Heero's head shot up. _Nonononono. Please, dear Kami-Sama. Don't let her be here, please not Ayame, _Heero thought, his mind searching frantically for any reason that he had heard Ayame's voice.

"WHERE IS HEERO?!" Ayame's voice rang through his cell, followed closely by the thump of her body hitting the door.

"In there," Verhelst said. The door opened, cautiously at first then faster. Ayame stuck her head in fully expecting it to soon be parted from the rest of her body, but instead was met with the sight of a beaten Heero.

"HEERO!" Ayame exclaimed, a mixture of emotions passing over her face as ran to him, finally settling on joy as she hit her knees and pulling him close.

"Ame," Heero said breathing in her scent. Heero wished now more than ever to hold her in his arms.

Verhelst watched the reunited couple from the door, sickened with the sight. "Enjoy," he said darkly. Ayame pulled back from Heero and looked at Verhelst just as he closed the door and locked it.

Ayame hung her head and said with a chuckle, "Walked right into that."

"Ame," Heero said, getting to his knees and leaning as close to her as his bonds would allow.

Ayame looked back at Heero and said, "I'll get us out of this." She reached into her braid and pulled out two hairpins and a small square of plastic explosive. "Wufei told me that this is what Duo does in case he gets caught," she said as she expertly picked the locks on the binders. Heero felt one cuff pop open and fell slightly forward using the now freed hand to hold himself up. Heero heard the click of the second cuff as it sprung open. Ayame rose up and started towards the door when Heero caught her by the wrist and pulled her gently to the floor. He claimed her lips in a gentle, passionate, and starved kiss that Ayame returned in threefold.

"Aisheteru, Ayame Suisei. I've missed you more than words could ever say," Heero said after breaking the kiss. "This isn't how I planned to ask but... will you marry me?"

Ayame sat there in Heero's embrace and for the second time in twice as many minutes Ayame's emotions ran wild. "Oh, Heero, Kami-Sama, hai. Aisheteru, Heero Yuy." Heero leaned in and kissed her again.

"We'd better go," Heero said as he broke the kiss. Ayame nodded and help him to his feet. For the first time since she'd been back at his side she looked him over; he was bruised, bloodied, and limping slightly. Ayame reached out to touch Heero's leg when he stopped her. "Don't," he said, "I was shot." Ayame gasped, but Heero continued, "But it's not bleeding or infected as far as I can tell. I'll be fine." 

Ayame bit her lip but nodded and walked towards the door. She pulled the short black ribbon off of her braid and rolled the small amount of plastic around it, then fished a cheap lighter from her pocket, which was luckily unbroken despite the Hell it had been through. She placed the plastic in the lock of the door, lit the makeshift fuse and ran to the far side of the room and stood beside Heero. The explosion was small but effective and the door swung open. Ayame touched Heero's hand and the couple walked out of the room.

"Where to now, Little Miss Rescue?" Heero drawled. Ayame graced him with a playful glare and started towards the way from which Verhelst had dragged her.

______

"Noin, Merquise!" Wufei called out as loud as he dared from the planned escape door. 

Zechs' head popped out around a corner. "Wufei, are you done? Where's Ayame and Yuy?"

Wufei shook his head and said, "We didn't find Yuy and Ayame was captured." Wufei took a deep breath and gasped.

"Wufei?" Zechs started as he came to stand by Wufei then noticed the slowly growing patch of crimson on his shirt. 

"And I was shot," Wufei said. Zechs moved to check Wufei's wound but stopped short as Wufei growled. "Get your ass in there and save Yuy and Ayame. I will not allow this mission to fail." 

Zechs stared at Wufei before nodding slowly. "Noin is on the other side of the base double-checking the work."

Noin stepped from around the far corner dusting the powdery snow from her gloves. Noin looked from Zechs to Wufei, questions forming in her eyes, and said, "I'm finished. Wufei, what's wrong?" Wufei told Zechs and Noin the whole story of what had happened and when he'd finished, they all stood looking back and forth.

Finally Noin sighed and asked, "Shall we be off?"

______

"Damn it!" Ayame growled as she kicked a wall. "Where the hell did he go?"

Heero leaned against the wall and stared at the puddle of blood on the floor. "Well, Wufei wasn't dragged off; there would be streaks of blood on the floor. So, I'm guessing he got up and is now looking for you and/or me."

"Or Zechs and Lu," Ayame added as an afterthought.

Heero closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please tell me that you did not just say that Merquise is here."

Ayame gave Heero a funny look. "Um, why?"

"Damn it," Heero said. "I'll never hear the end of it. 'The Perfect Soldier got caught. I rescued Heero Yuy.'" Heero sighed and Ayame fought a loosing internal battle not to laugh at him.

Snickering, Ayame walked over to Heero and said, "If Zechs calls you the Perfect Soldier I'll--- I'll--- I don't know what I'll do but it'll hurt. Let's go see if Wufei is outside with Zechs and Lu. If he is, we can get the hell out of here and be on our way home." Heero looked up and smiled.

"Home," he said as if savouring the word. Pushing himself off the wall he leaned over to Ayame until their foreheads touched. "I just have to say this again, Aisheteru, Ayame Suisei."

Ayame giggled and said, "Soon to be Ayame Yuy." Heero gently took hold of her chin and kissed her.

Ayame broke the kiss and giggled again. "Let's go." Ayame put Heero's arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist. Heero leaned on Ayame for support and together they walked away.

______

Brandy started her fourth round of pacing the empty base and Trowa had reached his breaking point. "Would you please _sit down_?" he demanded, standing in front of her.

Brandy looked at Trowa and said, "I'm sorry. It's just that I have this feeling that something bad has happened or is going to happen to Ayame."

"I know you're worried," Trowa said placing his hands on her shoulders, "And I'm worried too. But you have to calm down; walking holes in the floor is _not _going to help them. Besides, I'm sure they'll be fine." Brandy closed her eyes and leaned against Trowa's chest. Trowa wrapped his arms around her and whispered soothing words to her. Brandy allowed herself to be comforted and fooled by his words.

______

Wufei had been forced to sit on a box just inside the door while Noin doctored him. Noin poured antiseptic onto a piece of cotton she had found in her med-pack and placed it over the bullet wound. Wufei squirmed and Noin said quietly, "Sit still."

"And what if I don't?" Wufei shot back. Noin did something most people would have considered insane. She slapped him over the head. Wufei sat stunned and Noin took advantage of it, taping the cloth over the wound. 

Zechs doubled over in silent laughter and thought, _God, I love that woman!_

Noin packed up what was left in her kit and walked over to Zechs. "Done," she said in Wufei's direction. Wufei shook his head as he came out of his dazed state and glared at Noin who unconsciously moved closer to Zechs. 

Wufei slid off the box, two seconds from a rant on injustices and women but stopped when he saw the hobbling couple slowly making their way toward the door.

Ayame looked up and said, "A little help, if it's not too much trouble."

Zechs walked forward and said with a smug grin, "No, no trouble at all." Heero stood there, waiting for what was to come. "So, Heero, what'd you do to yourself this time?"

"Merquise," Heero said evenly turning to look Zechs in the eye as he put his arm over the older man's shoulders, "shut up."

Ayame stifled a laugh as Zechs smiled and shook his head. "C'mon," Ayame said, "the sooner we leave the sooner we can set off the fireworks and leave this experience behind."

______

The cold winds tore at Heero's skin and he started to shiver. Zechs dropped Heero's arm off his shoulder and shrugged off his coat, slinging it over Heero. Heero gave a small but grateful smile to Zechs who nodded and continued to help him across the plains. Between the harsh winds, the now falling snow which seemed to have came out of nowhere, and Heero's injuries, the walk was slow going.

"We still need to get further away," Wufei said looking back, "we aren't out of Adams' estimated blast zone."

Ayame looked at Wufei and asked, "How much further?"

"Another twenty to thirty feet should do," Wufei said starting to move towards the barren forest. 

__

Click. Everyone stopped, everyone knew the sound of a gun being cocked.** BOOM!** A tree in front of them exploded in a cloud of splinters. A sizeable hole stared out at them from the trunk of the tree.

__

Hollow tips, Ayame decided mentally,_ probably a .44 millimetre._

"Move," Verhelst said, cocking the gun, "and your face will look like that tree." Verhelst moved up behind Ayame and roughly pulled her away from Heero. "This is _mine,_" Verhelst said pushing the gun under Ayame's chin. Ayame let out a near inaudible squeak of pain as a sharp edge on the barrel cut her.

Heero's rational mind shut down and the soldier kicked in. He lunged at Verhelst who quickly turned the gun on Heero. A shot rang out through the still morning, but it wasn't from Verhelst's gun nor did it hit Heero. Verhelst's grip on Ayame loosened and his gun fell into the snow. Ayame pulled away from her brother and ran to Heero.

"I'm sorry, William," a small voice said, carried off by the wind and unheard by anyone. April Adams slipped her gun into its holster and walked to her waiting snowmobile and rode into the dark forest. _Maybe I can make things right with Ayame and Brandy, one day,_ she thought. Ayame, Heero, Wufei, Noin, and Zechs silently moved into the forest and detonated the base. 

______

Brandy sat silently on her makeshift workbench comfortably wrapped up in Trowa's arms with no intention of disturbing the tall pilot who had finally settled her down. It was then the garage door opened and the five pushed the snowmobiles in and shook off the snow.

Ayame helped Heero into a chair, propping his left leg on the table, then moved over to Wufei who shrugged her off, choosing to sit across from Heero. "Sally! I need you!" Ayame called. Sally stuck her head around the door frame and took in the sight. Sighing she went to find a med-kit.

Brandy looked at Trowa who gave her a quick, reassuring squeeze. He had been right. They would be fine.

______


	9. Teenage Angst

T. K.: *sits back and looks at her handiwork, then to the two muses hidden in a fight cloud* This is the end, truly. You'll have to excuse my muses they are settling a few creative differences. See previous chapters for disclaimers.

______

__

The pilots risked their lives first for the colonies, then for the Earth, and now they fight for the biggest reason of all, everlasting peace. Chang Wufei and Duo Maxwell now live happily in Tokyo working as Preventers, Quatre Winner and his husband, Garret Jabot, live on L4 and tour the Colonies to promote and protect the peace. Trowa Barton lives with his wife, Brandy Adams and their children on L3 where they both work as Preventers. Lady Une retired to take care of her daughter. Zechs Merquise or Milliardo Peacecraft is now Preventer in Charge, with his wife Lucrezia Noin, who is pregnant with their second child and living happily in the Sanc Kingdom with his sister, Vice-Foreign Minister Relena Dorlian-Peacecraft. Heero Yuy is now married to Ayame Suisei-Yuy and both are full-time writers and public speakers, Ayame is pregnant with their first child. All pilots hope that the peace lasts this time but are always ready to defend life on Earth and the Colonies.

Ayame read the last line of what she had just written and smiled. "Oomph," she grunted as the growing baby in her belly kicked. "Okay, okay, you're hungry. Got it, little man."

"Girl," Heero said, standing in the doorway of their apartment.

Ayame smiled and shook her head, "It's a boy. I had a dream and it was a boy."

Heero shrugged and closed the door behind him. "Well, anyhow, I doubt she's hungry. It's eleven o'clock and you're still working on that book."

"Nuh-uh," she said. "I finished the book." Heero arched his eyebrow and smiled.

"Good, that means you can go to bed."

Ayame rolled her eyes and said, "Two years you wouldn't have needed a bed to do what I want to do. We could have used the kitchen table or the couch or the desk would have worked as well."

"I'll meet you in the bed if five minutes," Heero said walking into the bathroom. 

Clicking back to the first page of the book she went to Insert and clicked Page Break, clicking on the fist line she changed the font size to 48 and titled her book. 

Teenage Angst:

The Lives of The Gundam Pilots, Then and Now

By: The Keepers

Ayame smiled and turned to the sword on the wall. "Goodnight, Treize."


End file.
